


Gorgeous Nightmare

by Cxnfusedkid



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2019-01-15 10:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12319593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cxnfusedkid/pseuds/Cxnfusedkid
Summary: After a scary encounter outside of a local club,  Evan begins to discover a world hidden and closely entertwined with his own, seemingly ruled by a strange man in a hockey mask.





	1. Evan's Three Mistakes

There were certain things in this world that not a lot of people knew about, and I happened to be one of the few who did. I didn't believe it at the time when my mom had sat down and explained to me that certain things are real. Things that people play off as horror stories and twisted fairy tales, things of terror and wonder. It sounded ridiculous to me at the time, which was sort of funny. While most kids would have bought it, when they would have dived into the fantasy, I was always the kid who didn't need to be told that Santa wasn't real or that the boogieman wasn't hiding in my closet. Even as a littke kid I always had a strong sense of reality. So naturally I thought my mother was full of shit.

She had felt the need to explain this to me because I was supposedly "different", though how different, I had no clue. She had sat me down, and I had gotten an awful sense of deja vu, as it reminded me a little too much of "the talk" for my own comfort and it was fifth grade flash backs all over again. Like a total asshole though, I called her out on this little prank of hers, and despite her insisting, the subject was never brought up seriously again. There had always been a nagging voice in my head, something telling me to listen, but logic always outweighed it for me. Logic would always win in my mind. Not to say that there wasn't doubt, because there was more than plenty of that.

That's why, when I felt eyes on me in the club I was at with my friends, the moment I looked at him I knew he was different, and instead of being scared I found myself curious. It was close to Halloween, so everyone was decked out in costumes, myself being Glenn from The Walking Dead, so it wasn't weird at the time that the guy was sporting a hockey mask, looking like he walked straight off the set of a horror movie. That's when I feel someone brush against me and I force myself to rip my eyes away from the man to see a girl in a slutty angel costume smiling at me shyly, wanting to dance. Slutty angel. That was quite the contradiction. I give her a smile to be polite, not all that interested, and glance back to look at the guy again, but he had left. 

I find myself getting lost back in the dancing crowd and push the man away from my mind and try to have fun, though a slight feeling of unease settles over me. I didn't feel like I was in danger, I felt like something was changing. It felt like the shifting of seasons, or the way rain slowly comes to a stop. Whether that was a good or bad thing I didn't have a clue. I should go back. I look around till I see my friends at the bar, David was dressed as Rick Grimes, while Tyler was Daryl. They all shared a mutual love of The Walking Dead so it was a cool idea to go in the themed costumes, though it kept bothering me that people kept asking me if I dressed like Glenn because we were both Asian. I had spent half of the night so far telling people that no, it wasn't a race thing, it was because Glenn was a fucking badass.

I wiggle my way off the dance floor and start to approach them, heading towards the bar, but slow my roll a little when I notice a man talking to them. David was talking the most to him to be precise, Tyler was mostly just listening in other than adding something when needed. He wasn't the friendliest person ever, and slightly less so lately after going through a recent break up. We had drug him out tonight in an attempt to cheer him up, but clearly that was failing. Eventually I go and plop an arm on David's shoulder, and both him and the guy look at me. David smiles, obviously, but the man subtly narrows his eyes at me and I notice that he's different as well. There was nothing visibly off about him, but I could almost feel it in the air radiating off of him, like an aura.

The man stands a few inches taller than me, though not quite as built. He has reddish brown hair, shaved on the sides and styled up. He also happens to be sporting a pretty wicked beard of all things. It's hard to tell whether that fact makes his old fashioned vampire costume more or less intimidating. The guy looked like a model, even with the smeared white face paint and drying fake blood.

"I'm sorry, was I interrupting?" I ask with a laugh that's only a little fake. This guy didn't sit right with me, while the other made me curious, this one makes me a bit uneasy. The guy smiles at me in a friendly way, almost a little too friendly. His fangs are slightly crooked.

"Nah man, its cool." He says easily, though there's a slightly defensive vibe to the way he stands, his shoulders a little too tense. It was almost territorial in my mind, and the off feeling intensifies. This man isn't right. This isn't right. My mother's warnings to me flood back into my mind with that thought, her stumbled words as she had attempted to explain. 

"I'm Vanoss, I see you've already met Nogla and Wildcat." I grin and hold out my hand to shake, feeling nervous, but doing a pretty good job of keeping my cool. I hope he doesn't notice the slight shaking of my hand, or the way I almost flinch when he takes it.

"My name is Cartoonz." He shakes my hand and I don't fail to notice how cold his skin feels, a polar opposite to me, sweaty and hot from dancing. I retract my hand and lean against the very buzzed Nogla. 

"Yeah, he was sayin' he had that, a...that one game, what was it again? That one we all wanna play!" He tugs at the sleeve of my T-shirt, his voice loud and enthusiastic. 

"You mean the new Far Cry?" I ask, and Nogla nods, the action causing his whole body to wobble slightly on the stool. 

" Yeah! That one!" David beams. "We should totally go play it!"

Yeah, there was no way in hell my friends and I were going anywhere near this dude's house. The guy was giving me the creeps worse and worse the longer he stood there. I glance at Cartoonz darkly, before looking back at Nogla, feeling like I was about to tell a kid that he can't have a puppy. Or maybe that Christmas was canceled this year. I don't know which metaphor is worse.

"No, I think it's time we all go home, we can go to my place and play COD or something. " I grab his shirt and start tugging him up. "Wildcat, time to go." I lean and murmur to the other. He looks at me for a moment like he wants to protest, but seems to think better of it and nods, before getting up from his seat. I find myself glad that the arguementive man decides to make it easy on me for once. Maybe he realizes that now just isn't the time.

"You guys sure? It's really awesome, and I have all the available DLCs." Cartoonz says causing Nogla to make a pathetic whinning sound, as if sounding like squealing breaks is going to change my mind.

"Vanoss, can't we go, just for a few minutes?" He complains, acting like a drunken toddler. I'm almost surprised that he didn't stomp like one. I just shake my head, grabbing both of my friends hands and take off walking a crossed the club, only pausing briefly to glance back over my shoulder. I don't know what this guy was trying to do, but I don't like it.

"Bye Cartoonz!" I yell back at him and he gives me a dirty look, but lifts a hand at me in a little wave anyways. I laugh a little and shake my head as I continue walking, David complaining the whole way out. As soon as we're outside, the cold air seems to sober the man up a little bit, seeing as he stops whinning like a child and looks a little more alert. Wildcat is still quiet and I feel sympathetic for the man. Personally I'd only had a few break ups and had never had a really serious relationship so I didn't know how it felt, but I knew he was hurting. 

I slip my arm over his shoulders and normally he would protest, shove me off of him, and call me gay, but it seems that tonight my touch may actually be comforting him, from the way he leans into me and flashes me a grateful smile. I smile back at him and start steering the boys in the direction of my apartment. I didn't live too far from here so we hadn't thought to bring one of our cars. Not that it really mattered that much, I'm just grateful that they aren't too drunk to walk, otherwise it would have been a disaster. I hold back a chuckle as I get the mental image of me and a very unsteady Tyler trying to drag a passed out Nogla into my house. 

I shake the image out of my head and glance up at the stars, letting my feet take me home, going somewhat on auto pilot. The sky was pretty tonight, the stars twinkling brightly in a blanket of midnight blue. If Tyler could hear my thoughts right now he would totally call me gay for thinking about the sky, despite the fact that he has probably done the same thing at least once or twice. He called me gay a lot, I was coming to realize. Not that it bothered me, he never really meant anything by it. I let out a semi-content sigh, inhaling and exhaling the night air.

My life had always felt like I was missing something important, like a puzzle piece that was supposed go right in the middle, but wasn't in the box when I opened it. I had everything I needed, my friends were amazing, my job was wonderful, but it still felt like there was something important missing. I didn't let it bother me though, I had plenty of things to keep me busy and at least semi-happy. Like the two idiots in my arms. The thought makes me smile, but I'm shaken out of my head by a sudden loud noise, and Tyler flinching against me.

That's when I realize I had made a few, very stupid mistakes. For example, I had been thinking about other things so evidently my feet felt like it was a good idea to take us through an alleyway as a short cut. Mistake number one. Mistake number two would be the fact that I hadn't been paying any attention to our surroundings whatsoever and we probably could have been mugged twenty times over by now. And finally, mistake number three, was leaving my cellphone at home. I already knew Wildcat's was dead, and Nogla had dropped his in the toilet last week.

I force myself to look behind me, despite the urge to just start running. I knew Nogla wouldn't be able to run that fast and its not like Tyler and I could carry the tall fucker all the way home while possibly being chased. My eyes go wide and I feel my breath catch when I see Cartoonz calmly sitting on the lid of the dumpster we passed at the entrance of the alley. He just observes us quietly, reminding me a lot of a big cat, calmly watching and waiting for the kill.

He smirks at me a little and I start to try to calculate the odds of us walking away from this. It was three to one, but we didn't know if he was armed at all, plus Nogla was still pretty buzzed. Wildcat was always good in fights though and had kicked my ass more times than I could count. My friend's had noticed his presence as well by now and I remove my arm from Tyler. Nogla gives me a worried look, clearly not liking the situation, despite seeming to like the man earlier. Tyler just stares the man down, his pale, ice blue eyes practically burning in the darkness. Tyler was pretty intimidating, but Cartoonz didn't seem to be at all phased.

I open my mouth to ask the man what he's doing, but before I can utter a sound I'm being slammed hard back against the bricks behind me. Pain flares in the back of my skull and I gasp. I can feel the jagged bricks scraping my back as I'm press harder into the wall and I wince, the pain in my head steadily increasing as I start to feel warm blood dripping through my hair. When I can finally get my eyes to focus I see my friends darting out of the alleyway, and Cartoonz's hands are gripping my T-shirt, his face inches away from mine.

My heart thunders in my chest as if it's trying to escape from this horrible situation and I can feel the sting of betrayal more than the sting of my head wound. Fuck, where are they going? I glance desperately after my friends, praying one of them will come back. Then I realize that they're going to find help.

Cartoonz smirks at me a little and I start to wonder how hard I hit my head exactly when I see his brown eyes practically start glowing. He leans forward, his nose brushing against my neck. What the actual fuck?

"How's the head?" He purrs and I feel his breath brush my skin. I feel sick and sleepy, despite my ever growing terror and I desperately try to think of a way out of this situation, all while mentally kicking myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid!! My eyes struggle to stay open and black spots keep flooding my vision. In that moment I knew I was going to pass out. I start to open my mouth, not sure if I was gonna scream for help, or try to reason with him, when I see movement behind him. Yes! Tyler and Nogla got help!

"Let him go." An unfamiliar voice says, with an accent I can't quiet place, though I'm pretty sure it was some sort of american accent, just from a place in America that I've never been to. The sound it sends warm tingle through my chest. The man in front of me makes a humming noise, as if contemplating the order.

"Why? Do you want him? He is kind of pretty. Smells good." Cartoonz pulls back a bit and glances over his shoulder, though still pinning me hard against the wall. I try to force my eyes to focus on the man behind Cartoonz and squint, only to realize it was horror movie hockey mask guy from the club. That's not very reassuring.

"You're being reckless. His friends are getting help as we speak, and I'm pretty sure that if he was a threat he would have fucked you up already." The guy coaxes and Cartoonz sighs a little and gives hockey mask guy a pout.

"This one's fun though." He whines, and the man behind him snorts.

"Totally, he's fun for now, but if he comes to his senses and fucking slaughters you, I'm not going to your funeral." Hockey mask guy says with a hint of amusement. My head spins and I feel my knees start to give out. What were they talking about? How the fuck would I slaughter him? I try to focus and make sense of their words, but find my world going black around me.

"Fine." Cartoonz sighs and suddenly I feel my knees hit the blacktop as my shirt is released, before my eyes slip shut and I stop feeling anything at all.


	2. Rust

The first thing I feel is warmth and softness, and I can smell the familiar scent of my bedroom. I feel fatigued and have trouble opening my eyes, my lids feeling heavy with sleep. I let them remain closed for now, sighing lightly and turning my face into the pillow, blocking out the light I sensed behind my eyelids and letting my thoughts drift around lazily. 

At least until the pounding in my head starts and the previous night comes flooding back to me. All tiredness aside, I wince at the bright sunlight as I try to gather my dizzying thoughts. What the hell happened? 

I can see the guys' clothes on my floor, easily recognizing the dirty looking Daryl vest and the brown sheriff's shirt. They probably stole some of my clothes to sleep i-...

My train of thought abruptly stops in its tracks when I realize that there's blood on the clothes, looking a disgusting rusty brown color.

I frown, feeling concern well up inside of my chest. Who was bleeding? I wonder for a moment before feeling stupid when I catch sight of myself in the mirror on my dresser across from me. I was the one bleeding. The memory of my head hitting brick and the slimy feeling of blood dripping through my hair flashes across my mind.

I study my reflection for a few moments. I look pale and tired, like I fought a tornado and lost. I had a bandage wrapped around my head and I was a total mess, with blood on my face and what looked like tear tracks, though I couldn't remember crying. 

My head keeps angrily throbbing at me and my thoughts are a little bit fuzzy, like a swarm of angry bees now resides in my skull. I need some asprin, I decide as I scoot towards the edge of the bed, just now noticing that I was still in my clothes from last night. As soon as my sock covered feet touch the floor, I pause, debating whether or not I should call the guys to get it for me, my head feeling sorta woozy. I wait to see if I can hear them making noise, but judging from the quiet I assume they're still asleep. I probably gave them both heart attacks last night, they deserved the rest.

I feel bad, as I imagine how terrifying for me it would be finding one of my friends passed out in an alleyway and bleeding after some psychopath attacked them. I frown a little and shake away the thoughts. As I stand, a wave of nausea washes over me as the room spins and the pounding in my head gets worse. The pain makes my eyes start to water and I carefully stumble to the nearest wall, putting my hand on it for balance. My knees feel weak, but thankfully they hold.

Slowly I start making my way towards the door of my bedroom, occasionally stopping when the spinning gets to much and squeezing my eyes shut to avoid puking. I didn't need to deal with cleaning up vomit this morning. Eventually I manage to shuffle out of my room and the first thing I see is Nogla stretched out on my couch, his long limbs hanging off the side and his mouth open, a line of drool going down his cheek. The image makes me smile a little, distracting me from my pain and I glance at Wildcat who's curled up in a chair, looking smaller than usual. Why are my friends so god damn cute? With that thought I trudge onward, being as quiet as I can on my way into the kitchen. 

I can feel how cold the white tile is through my socks, as I step onto it, now using the kitchen counter to keep myself steady and upright instead of the wall. I make my way over to the cabinet where I keep my cups, before heading over to the sink, at a turtle slow pace. I fill the cup with cold water and take a small sip. My headache seems to dull slightly as the cool liquid slides down my throat and I let out a near silent sigh at the little relief. I glance around and spy the asprin and smile at myself, congratulating myself on being smart for once. Last night I knew at least one of us was going to wake up with a hang over so I had put it on the counter before we left so it would be right there when whoever needed it. Funny, I didn't expect it to be me. 

I walk over and put my glass of water down in favor of picking up the bottle. I fumble with the child lock on the lid with shaky hands and it takes me a full two minutes to get it off. I dump two pills into my hand when the lid finally pops off and falls back onto the counter. I tilt my head back and dump them into my mouth, tasting the gross bitterness of them on accident before I sip my water to wash them down. I let out another sigh, knowing that I'll feel better soon. I decide to leave the cap off the bottle incase David or Tyler need them later. 

I rub at my eyes and walk back into the living room to see Wildcat stirring slightly and after a second his blue eyes flutter open briefly before closing again, as he stretches his mouth open in a yawn. I glance at Nogla whose still out cold. Wildcat opens his eyes again and gives me a crooked smile. 

"You scared the shit out of me, asshole. Go take a shower, you look disgusting. You look like you survived a horror movie." He grumbles in his usual grump tone, but I know what might pass as hostility to others, was just how Tyler was sometimes. It all came from a place of love. 

"I feel disgusting. I smell disgusting." I wrinkle my nose a little, the smell of blood and sweat lingering on me; it was strong and I'm surprised I didn't notice before. Tyler stretches his arms above his head as he laughs a little, careful to be quiet so Nogla doesn't wake up.

"I'm sure you do. Its gonna sting like a bitch though, be careful. We were afraid you were actually going to need stitches at first," He says, his voice giving away how upset he was about the incident, despite acting so casual about it. I feel my heart clench a little in my chest at my friend's upset.

"Well, I didn't. Thank you for dragging me home and taking care of me." I give him a small smile, hoping he understands how grateful I am and that I'm okay. 

"No, thank you for not letting us go to that psycho's house. I'm sure we all would have been a lot worse off it you'd hadn't stepped in." Wildcat smiles back at me and I just shake my head a little bit, my smile lingering. 

"I'm gonna go shower now, if you need or want anything, help yourself." I say as I wander back to my room. Tyler hadn't really smiled for a while so it was a nice sight to see. Everyone was worried about the cat, but I think he was starting to get passed it. Nothing like almost having your friend killed to pull you out of a post-breakup depression. I start digging through my dresser for clean clothing, and start to feel the aching in my head letting up as the pills kick in.

I pull out a pair of sweatpants, an old, plain black T-shirt, and a pair of boxers before heading to my bathroom. As I go in I plop my clean clothes onto the counter and start stripping out of my old ones. I put my hands on the bottom of my shirt and pull it up over my head, being careful not to fuck up the bandage wrapped in my raven hair. I drop the shirt on the floor and glance at myself in the mirror for a moment, noting that I looked a little less pale now. I still looked like I very well could be a newly turned zombie, though. The Walking Dead extras didn't have shit on me this morning.

I roll my eyes at the thought and turn the water on in the shower so it can warm up while I strip down the rest of my clothes away. After I lose my clothes I look back into the mirror for a second, wanting to see the back of my head, and trying to figure out how to accomplish that. I remember the small hand mirror I have in a drawer for when I used to cut own my hair, and pull it out. I swallow hard as I look back at the wall mirror, staring at the bandage still on my head. Was it really gory looking? Did I actually want to see it or should I just get in the shower?

The mirror starts beginning to steam up, as if telling me to hurry. I make my choice and quickly unwind my bandages with trembling fingers. There's a pretty good amount of blood on the bandage, but it had clearly stopped bleeding hours ago, the blood a gross brown color at this point. I throw it into the trash can before hesitantly turning my back to the wall mirror. I take a deep breath and pick up the hand mirror where I had set it on the counter and hesitantly hold it up and begin to angle it to look at the back of my head.

My hair is matted with dry blood and sweat, parted and clumped up around the wound. I could tell it wasn't as serious as it looked, the dried blood around the gash giving it a more gruesome affect. Despite it not being all that bad, my stomach still twists in protest and I put the hand mirror back down on the counter. It was definitely going to hurt when I got in the shower. I glare at the washing station, as if it was the shower's fault that I was gross and needed cleaning. Stealing my nerves, I hesitantly go and step into the shower, avoiding putting my head under right away. 

Instead I turn and wash off my back and neck; watching the water turn a disgusting rust color as my the blood washes off of my body. Next I rinse off my face, avoiding letting the back of my head under the warm spray, and let it wash away the dirt and tear tracks. I thoroughly cleans myself until the only thing left is my hair and the back of my head. I clench my jaw before ducking my head under the steamy water and a small, quiet whimper escapes my throat. The wound at the back of my head stings furiously, almost like I was having the back of his head slammed into the wall all over again, only without shock to dull some of the pain this time.

I stay still until the water runs clear yet again and the wound stops hurting as I get used to the water. I slowly reach back and start to untangle my matted hair with my fingers, careful to avoid touching the gash. Afterwards I start to reach for the shampoo, but stop myself. It would probably be better if I didn't wash my hair right now. With a small sigh I turn the water off, before reaching out and grabbing my towel off the rack. I carefully towel off my hair, making sure to be extra gentle, before drying the rest of me.

I throw the towel back on the rack before pulling my clothes. I bend down to rummage under my cabinet for a fresh bandage from my first aid kit, already feeling a million times better than when I first woke up. Physically at least, though my emotions had just started to begin to fully register the situation. I was attacked. I could have been killed. Who was that guy and why the fuck did he do it? Why did hockey mask dude stop him? 

As I walk into the living room, a million questions run through my head and I struggle to push them aside. I notice that David is no longer asleep on my couch, but instead is eating a bowl of Froot Loops at my kitchen table.

"Murnim, Efam" The Irishman mumbled through his mouthful of cereal. I laugh a little bit at that, my concerned thoughts dissipating.

"Close your mouth, fucker." Wildcat mumbles from his chair where he's playing videogames, shooting a disgusted glance in Nogla's direction. David just rolls his eyes a little bit.

"Morning, Nogla." I shoot him a smile as I walk to the couch and plop down. "Lemme know when you can pause, Tyler, I need help with my bandages." I look at the Tv to watch Tyler play, only to be surprised when he puts the controller down, despite being in the middle of a car chase in GTA 5. He stands up with a sigh and plops next to me on the couch, taking the bandages from me and putting his hands on his shoulders to turn me. I comply and move how he wants me, sitting cross legged with my back facing him.

"You could have waited till you were somewhere safe, I'm in no hurry," I say as I feel him shift behind me and start moving my hair to get a better look at the gash. 

"It looks a lot better today." He ignores my comment and I roll my eyes. I hear Nogla get up from his seat at the table, a second before the sink turns on, indicating him rinsing out his bowl. Tyler starts carefully wrapping the bandage around my head. 

"So, what's the plan for today?" I ask and he just shrugs. 

"Whatever you want to do. I'm not gonna just leave you alone with your head all fucked up so you're stuck with me for another night." He says softly. Nogla shuts the sink off and plops on the couch in front of me. 

"You're stuck with me too." He yawns, his accent a little bit thicker when he's sleepy. I smile. I took my friends for granted too much. These men were my family. 

"Well," I start as Tyler finishes wrapping the bandage. "I was thinking we could go buy something we could make for dinner tonight, rent some movies, and maybe get that video game you were almost willing to be murdered for last night." My voice is amused as I direct the last part at Nogla and Tyler snorts behind me.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go on an adventure, boys!" Nogla chirps.

"Adventure...in Wal-Mart." Wildcat points out and Nogla's grumpy expression in response had me near tears with laughter.

Today felt like it was going to be a good day, despite everything.


	3. Hide and Seek

We arrived at Wal-Mart after a car ride that felt like it lasted forever between the traffic and my friends' constant fighting over the radio and CDs. Normally I would have just picked the music and told them to deak woth it, but I just didn't have the energy this morning. While driving, I had to dodge the two as they slapped and punched at each other nearly the whole time. My ears were still ringing from whenever Nogla started yelling about Tyler calling the song he wanted to listen to gay. I swear to god, my friends are worse than ten year old children sometimes.

I barely parked my car before I started throwing myself out of it, not wanting to be trapped in the small space with them trying to punch each other in the face any longer than I had to be. They get out significantly slower than me, clearly not as desperate. I cross my arms across my chest and glance at them through my sunglasses, not exactly feeling my look today with the way my unwashed hair is shoved into a dad cap. I felt somewhat gross in that way, but shampooing my hair really didn't seem like a good idea for now. I would just have to deal.

"Off we go!" Nogla walks up and claps his hand on my shoulder as I start walking. Tyler follows along to my other side quietly until we reach the building. It was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday, ususally the place was packed to the brim with people on the weekends. I'm thankful for the peacful atmosphere though, and even more thankful that as soon as we step inside the guys run off, having things they wanted to grab. I roll my eyes a little and grab a mini cart, feeling like the awkward mom friend as I get saddled with the task of getting the food, along with buying those assholes toothbrushes for the morning. So much for being stuck with them, I guess.

Midway through shopping I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up and eyes starring at me. Normally I'd be alarmed,  but for some reason, I feel completely calm, though curious as to whom is starring at me, and why. I turn to look and catch a glimpse of blue disappearing around the corner. Quietly I creep and peer around the corner and see nothing. I look in the aisle next to me and then the aisle after that and see no hint of the mysterious person, though I can feel their eyes back on me. Hide and seek eh? I'm down. 

I leave the cart by a bench, out of everyone's way, and where nobody is very likely to take it, before scanning my surroundings, looking for anyone starring at me or wearing blue. When that plan fails, I pout a little. Where are they...I think to myself, when I feel the urge to go to the chip aisle and this time I see the a black jean covered ankle and a converse disappear out of the aisle as soon as I can see all the way down. Gotcha. I quickly dart to the next isle only to catch that same flash of blue. Whoever this was they were fast. 

I smirk and find myself going from speed walking to jogging, this person always staying just a little bit ahead of me somehow. When I realize that trying to catch up with them wasn't going to work unless I full on ran, which was a very bad idea, in retrospect, even if it wasn't very crowded today. I decided to run down the aisle so I was on their end of the aisles, but wound up running straight into Wildcat, who was walking in my direction while looking at his phone. We both wind up knocked back on out asses and a wave of dizziness washes over me.

"What the fuck, Vanoss?!" Tyler screeches angrily. "What were you doing?" He picks himself off of the ground and shoves his hand out for me to take, clearly pissed. His expression is stormy and he huffs out his breaths with an irritated aura.

"I...someone was watching me and I was following them." I say, feeling kinda awkward, and feel my face burn with embarrassment when Tyler raises his eyebrows at me. I had been having too much fun to realize how weird that had sounded.

"If you were following them then you were watching them, not the other way around..."  Tyler points out and I glare at him.

"Not originally!" I grab his hand and he pulls me to my feet easily. I can feel them watching me again and kinda frown. Well, hide and seek was fun while it lasted. "Whatever, I left the cart by a bench, can we just go get it and find Nogla?" I grump, crossing my arms. 

"Lead the way." The taller man gestures and I start walking to where I left the cart, sulking a little. After we grab the cart, we're only looking for Nogla for a minute or two before he finds us. He's jogging towards us and his eyes are wide. He looks like he had seen a ghost. Tyler and I glance at each other before we start jogging to meet him.

"Nogla, what's wrong?" I feel slightly uneasy. Nogla just looks really confused and startled and I hadn't even noticed the small scrap of paper clenched in his hand, but now he holds it out to me. I take it hesitantly.

"I-I don't know where the fuck it came from, I...I found it in my pocket, I don't know how it got there, except maybe for some guy who bumped into me in the Halloween section, like when we first got here." He babbles nervously and I look at the paper. 

Tell your friend I'm sorry about his head, my friend is kinda a dick. 

My heart speeds up a little bit. I find myself glancing around nervously. What the actual fuck? Who the hell wrote this? Was it the dude with the mask? How the fuck did find us? A million questions run through my head at once and I have to force myself to take a few deep breaths. 

"Did you see the guy who gave this to you? " I ask Nogla, and the stare I've been feeling almost seems to intensify somehow, causing my heartbeat to go through the roof. I have to fight the urge to turn and look around, knowing the person would dart out of sight before I could see them. Was it the person who wrote the note?

"Uh, just a guy in a blue hoodie, I didn't see his face." Nogla says apologetically. "Sorry."

"Its fine." I fold the note carefully and put it back in my pocket. Blue hoodie. It looks like my hide and seek partner wanted to make sure I got their apology, that's probably why they were following me in the first place. So there's a few questions answered, not that it makes the situation a whole lot better.

"Can we get out of here now? I'm kind of creeped out." Wildcat grumbles and I just nod. Without another word, we make our way to check out. Why did the guy feel the need to apologize to me? Its not like he was the one who did it, he was the one who got the guy to let me go. I can still feel him looking at me from somewhere and I glance at my friends, seeing that they're distracted with putting the groceries on the conveyor belt. I quickly turn, not looking for him necessarily, but generally just facing the direction I can sense he's in and I wave a little, saying good bye to the mysterious man, silently telling him that his apology is accepted.

After that, I quickly turn, and go to the check out counter to wait to pay for the stuff while the lady scans the items. I'm relieved friends didn't notice, or at least, that Wildcat didn't notice. Nogla gives me a sideways glance, though I'm not really sure if it's because he saw me, or just because today is turning out to be a weird ass day. I just give him a small smile and shrug. 

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, though it was pleasant, if not just a little bit boring. The guys insisted I stay on the couch and rest for most of the day after I started complaining about my head hurting again. We played video games for hours, till the two went off to attempt to make some nachos for dinner. I was pretty hungry and I prayed that they would be edible on the first try.

Without the guys yelling at me and each other, or at least not yelling at each other in the same room as me, my thoughts wandered back to hockey mask guy. What was he? Like, how was he different? I found myself wishing I could see him again but shake my head at myself. Stop. You're being ridiculous. You should forget about him. You probably aren't going to ever run into him again anyways. I mentally sigh at myself. I pull the note out of the pocket of my hoodie and look at it again, glancing over the semi-sloppy, but still legible handwriting. Did he follow me last night, or did he coincidentally spot me in Wal-Mart?

I refold the note and put it back in my pocket, three seconds before Wildcat walks in. He gives me a suspicious look, like he knew I had been doing something he probably wouldn't agree with.

"Foods ready. It actually turned out pretty fucking good, thanks to yours truly. "He smirks and I chuckle a little, standing up. 

"We'll see about that." I snicker as I walk to the kitchen. Nogla is sitting on the kitchen counter, his plate of food in his lap as he eats. Okay, just ignore the table and chairs.I think as I start fixing my plate. I wind up following Nogla's lead and hop back onto the counter, setting my plate in my lap. I take a bite and am actually surprised at the fact that it's really good.

"Mmmm, this is good." I mumble and Nogla beams a little.

"Thanks, I did it all by myself. With no help whatsoever. " David smirks and Tyler makes and annoyed grumbling noise as he pulls one of the table chairs closer to us to sit and eat his meal. Before I know it, we're all back to the living room, playing video games. Tyler has taken his spot in his chair and Nogla was sitting on the couch, I was laid back with my head in his lap.  Everything was starting to feel a little hazy, I was tired, and one minute I'm conquering Los Santos with my friends and the next I'm suddenly sitting on a roof. 

I glance at the figure next to me, for some reason my chest felt tight. I can't see his face because he's turned away from me so all I see is a mess of dark brown hair. I recognize the flannel he's wearing as mine and I get the feeling that normally I would like the sight of him wearing my clothes but for the moment I want to rip the flannel off and strangle him with it.

"So, I have to leave you, and Tyler, because I'm the dangerous one. Me, who can't even get in verbal arguments most of the time without being disgusted at myself as opposed to a house full of killers. " My voice is bitter and full of pain. "I haven't hurt anyone, tell me, how many people have you killed Jonathan? Why don't you leave me alone and go back to sucking face with your boyfriend since you fucking hate me so much," I snap at the guy. His shoulders are tense and his posture is defensive. 

"Evan, you know that's not what its about." His voice has a slightly familiar accent to it. I can hear the slight rage bubbling underneath his false calm, and normally I'd do anything to avoid it, but this time I can't help but want him to lose it and show some emotion. 

"Whatever. Fucking liar," I hiss, knowing exactly how to push his buttons. His swings around to look at me, his nearly neon blue eyes lit up with rage. 

"God dammit Evan, this isn't about him! This isn't about me! I can't protect you forever, not here, I can barely protect you from myself! We don't know what you are, that puts both sides in danger, and after your outburst this morning you can't fucking stay here." He growls, glaring at me and I feel sick. 

"Fuck you, Jonathan, you didn't even fucking try..." My voice is quiet and his eyebrows furrow in confusion as he tried to figure out what I said. I stand up and dust the dirt off the ass of my jeans before turning to start walking away. "You can keep the flannel if you want, I'd only throw it out when I got home anyways." I say coldly, despite the pain burning tight in my chest and having to blink quickly to avoid the tears trying to spill down my cheeks. Suddenly I hear Nogla's voice and the world dissolves into nothing.


End file.
